Where is my Messages saving my chat conversations?

Messages (Mountain Lion): Save conversations

If you save the conversations, I think they are saved in ~/Library/Messages (tilde means "home folder").

You can get there by pasting that path (with the tilde) into the Finder Go to Folder dialog.

Hi,

The place is right although you need to be Saving them (Messages Menu > Preference > Messages) and they are then in a folder called Archive with further folders by date and time (session).

The chat.db item in the same Messages folder holds the iMessages "History".

If you Migrated an iChat account as in from a computer that was doing iChat then your old iChat Saved chats are still in ~/Documents/iChats by default.

These too are in Date and Time (session folders - if you quit the app you may have two folders the same Date) folders.

There is no Plugins folder in ~/Library/Messages

To be clear the long path is Hard Drive (name)/Users/(your account shortname)/Library/Messages

The Library in your Home Folder (the one with the little House iCon in Users) is invisible in Lion and Mountain Lion.

You either go to the Finder > Go Menu and hold the ALT key to display the Library and then find the Messages folder or you go to the Go Menu > Go to Folder and paste in ~/Library/Messages in to the dialogue box.

In Hard Drive (name)/Library/Messages are the Plugins in a folder called Plugins for creating AIM, Jabber, Bonjour and Yahoo chats.

You are in the wrong Library.

9:48 PM Thursday; April 25, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

HI,

Pic of folder with Path bar showing

This Library - the one inside the Home Folder (Little House iCon) is Hidden or Invisible Now. (Has been since Lion)

Two way to get there.

1) Go to the Finder Go menu > Go to Folder and Type in ~/Library/Messages (Don't forget the ~ (tilde) in front of the slash)

2) In the finder > Go Menu hold down the ALT key (Second Left from the left end of the Space bar) and this will show the Library in the Menu.

As the ALT is held down the Screen Shot CMD + Shift + 4 does not work

Then navigate to the Messages folder.

10:52 PM Thursday; April 25, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

HI,

for the Points +

6:59 PM Friday; April 26, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

Your post is linked to one I made.

No-one in this thread says anything about doing a Clean Install making your references to "also" doing this nonsensical.

Which "Messages Box" are you opening ?

I have told people how to navigate to the storage places which don't involve any boxes at all.

That leads me to ask what you mean by " "naked" Messages History " both as to it's location in this box and what the word naked refers to.

8:07 pm Wednesday; November 13, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

If you look in that folder I mentioned, you may find them there. Try double-clicking on them.

I also did a clean install and I did what you said but still when I open the Messages box it shows the "naked" Message history. Could you be more specific about what you did?

Thanks a lot!